Automobile Insurance

IIABNY has been extremely concerned during the past few years about the cost of fraud in the New York automobile market. While there has been some improvement because of strong regulatory initiatives, New York still has some of the weakest laws in the country to address fraud. With the goal of enacting the necessary legislation, IIABNY reached out to insurance carriers and others in the industry to develop a coalition called NY First. With most major automobile insurance carriers involved, NY First was successful during the 2005 session in advocating legislation to allow for the decertification of health insurance providers who engage in fraud. We believe that this success sets the stage for even more aggressive coalition efforts on the issue of automobile insurance fraud.

Organized, sophisticated networks of personal injury lawyers, health care practitioners and other individuals have devised schemes to file fraudulent no-fault claims. Individuals, who may or may not have been in a real accident, are recruited to go to health care providers who are in on the fraudulent scam. These schemes even have “runners,” individuals who will direct accident victims to unscrupulous lawyers and health care providers. All the participants in this fraud receive money from the billings paid by the no-fault carriers.

IIABNY is committed to this coordinated industry effort to enact legislation to address these problems through NY First. NY First will continue working with legislators and regulators to push for the enactment of additional legislation.

Action Needed:

We urge the Legislature to pass meaningful additional fraud legislation that will help fight no-fault insurance fraud, to include these important elements:

• · Mandatory arbitration of no-fault claims;
• · Repeal of the law established by the Presbyterian Hospital case;
• · The implementation of medical protocols for no-fault injuries; and
• · Increased penalties for acting as a “runner.”

We also believe the property damage accident threshold amount should be increased. This is the amount at which a driver involved in a property damage accident must report the accident to the Department of Motor Vehicles. It has been $1,000 since 1989, while the consumer price index has increased over 50% since that time. We will work with others in the industry to determine the proper threshold level, based on current accident and repair cost data.

In the past, the Governor, the Senate and the Assembly have all supported at least some of the actions IIABNY is advocating. The Legislature needs to agree with the Governor on an automobile no-fault reform package. Failure to act on these issues will leave drivers facing both affordability and availability problems for automobile insurance in New York State.

Legislative Position Paper 2006 Session

Broker & Agent Disclosure

Auto Insurance Reform

Health Insurance Reform

Market Availability & Affordability

Workers Compensation Reform

Law Labor 240 / 241 Reform